Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Outside the Israel Embassy, tears for the ‘martyr’ who set himself on fire there

Aaron Bushnell killed himself ‘to stir the conscience of this country,’ said one woman at a gathering outside the Israeli Embassy Monday

The day after Aaron Bushnell, an active duty soldier in the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., hundreds gathered to pay their respects to him at the site of his fatal protest.

“We will honor all our martyrs,” the crowd chanted Monday afternoon during an event that was part political rally and part vigil. Some held lit candles. A few cried. Signs read “His Last Words — Free Palestine.” One speaker, inveighing against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, told the crowd not to vote for President Biden or former President Trump, but for a third party candidate.  

Bushnell, who said “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” moments before he doused himself with a flammable liquid, died from his wounds on Monday.

A man set a loudspeaker on the ground and blasted audio in which Bushnell explained that he was about to do something “extreme.” The audio, from a livestream of his suicide posted on social media, includes his screams of pain and cries of “Free Palestine.”

A funeral wreath and black balloons marked the spot where Bushnell, 25, self-immolated. It’s in front of the gate to the embassy’s driveway, one of the few sections not covered with pictures of hostages Hamas took from Israel on Oct. 7. 

“It is so tragic that a 25-year-old man, such a young man, felt compelled to do this to stir the conscience of this country,” said Kesh Ladduwahetty, 60, a graphic designer who held a sign that read “Justice Burns Eternal.”

“I hope he did not die in vain,” she added, a tear falling down her cheek.

Kesh Ladduwahetty of Washington, D.C., at a gathering outside the Israeli Embassy Monday, the day after an airman self-immolated there to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Image by

Several hundred people came to the event, many holding Palestinian flags. U.S. Secret Service and D.C. police officers blocked off the street and parked more than 20 squad cars and SUVs near the embassy’s entrance.

Samantha Bolte, 31, traveled from Arlington, Virginia, with her French bulldog, Günter, who wore a placard across his back that read “Good Boys Against Genocide” on one side and cursed the Israel Defense Forces on the other side.

Samantha Bolte, of Arlington, Virginia, brought her dog Günter to a protest at the Israeli Embassy Monday. Photo by Lauren Markoe

Bushnell sent “a huge message” to the American people about the need to end the war in Gaza, said Bolte, who also condemned the murders committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 in Israel.

Asked if she worried that others might take inspiration from Bushnell and kill themselves in protest, she said “it’s a very scary thought,” and noted a Buddhist monk who self-immolated to protest the Vietnam War and the Tunisian man who did the same, setting off the Arab Spring.

“I hope we don’t see any more,” she added. 

Gloria Strange, a massage therapist who held a sign that read “Free Hugs & Free Palestine” said, “I feel I will never do enough to support Palestine.”

She said she hugged about 10 people. 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.